#1

Exquisite Coast is a shared patch game for the Make Noise 0-Coast created by Damon Holzborn (@damon) and John O’Brien (@jmob77). Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative image or text game, developed by the Surrealists, where a text or drawing is created either by some set rule or by only revealing the end of what the previous person contributed. In that spirit, Exquisite Coast uses a tight set of technical constraints as an artistic challenge that encourage a deep exploration of the instrument. These guidelines are designed to foster creativity, provide a useful method to get to know your 0-Coast, and engage with a wider community of music makers.

How to Play the Exquisite Coast Shared Patch Game

Process

  1. Create a patch and record a performance using only the 0-Coast (the Prompt).
  2. Document the state of your 0-Coast at the end of the Prompt recording.
  3. Share your Prompt for others to use (the Response).

Guidelines

  • All sound and control comes from the 0-Coast — no outside MIDI or CV.
  • The only outside modules allowed are passive mults (this minor exception makes sense for those who don’t have any stacking cables).
  • MIDI B CV and Gate should be set to LFO mode.
  • Re-patching while performing either the Prompt or the Response is not allowed; all interaction is through the knobs and buttons.
  • The knob positions notated in the patch chart should reflect the state of the patch at the end of the Prompt recording. The Response Author should use the knob positions as they explore the patch, but a Response recording need not start at those positions.
  • Linear editing (splicing) of the recordings is acceptable, but not multi-tracking.
  • Only mastering-type plug-ins (reverb, dynamic processing, EQ, etc.) are to be used on the recordings (i.e. no distortion, delay, flanger, etc.).
  • If you share your recordings on platforms like SoundCloud or YouTube, consider adding [exquisitecoast-prompt] or [exquisitecoast-response] at the end of the title so others can find your recordings. We’ll keep any eye out for such tracks and add them to our SoundCloud playlist (YouTube playlist to come soon). Don’t forget to include a link to your patch in the track description (and of course give credit to the original author when posting a Response).
  • If you share a patch on social media, consider using the hashtag #exquisitecoast.
  • If you are comfortable with doing so, it would be helpful to include contact info (email, website, social media, etc.) in the Author Info section so others can properly credit you in their response (or tell you how great your patch is!).
  • Please share you patches and recordings in this thread!

How to Play the Exquisite Coast Shared Patch Game

  • Notate your patch at ec.rustle.works.
  • Click the Get Share Link button to view the URL so that you can copy it.
  • Paste that link into an email to send to a friend, post on social media, or share here at Lines.

If you post your recordings to SoundCloud, let us know so we can add it to the Exquisite Coast playlist:

You can view our patches from those first couple of examples here:
Damon’s Week 03 Prompt
John’s Week 04 Prompt

We’ll make a playlist for YouTube as well if there is demand.

We hope this sounds like fun. Please let us know if you have any problems with the web app. It’s new so there’s certain to be a bug or two. Also, please share any feedback you have about the process, we’d love to hear everyone’s ideas. And of course, share your patches and sounds here for us all to check out!

We’ll be talking about Exquisite Coast on Saturday, May 23 at the Remote Music Hackathon. Talks start at Noon. RSVP here.

Get started here:

14 Likes
#2

Excellent idea! No time to record something, but I have to bump this thread.

I also like the interface to write down the patches. Would love to have this for my own rack. Maybe a fancy spreadsheet with pre-filled inputs/outputs will work.

@damon The link to your patch isn’t working.

3 Likes
#3

Super cool idea, I traded my 0 Coast last year in order to acquire a Morphagne, but I’m super interested in this thread. It’d be cool to fork the idea and apply it to something like a morphagene and maths combo as well.

2 Likes
#4

Oops! Fixed. Thanks. I was wondering why John’s patch had some clicks but mine didn’t. I thought sheesh, at least look at it before you think it sucks. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#5

I pretty successfully avoided premature optimization in the development of EC. That means the current version is very much hard coded with the 0-Coast in mind. I hope, however, to revisit it at some point and refactor it to be more generalizable. That said, nobody ever got rich betting the under on when I would get something done. In the meantime, the code is up at GitHub under an MIT license. A suitably motivated person with some HTML and JavaScript skills could hack together their own version pretty easily, I think. I suppose if there is a chorus of demand, I might get to a reusable library sooner rather than later.

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#6

Forked! I’ll post back here with a link to something, should I get it going. For now I just forked your repo to my account.

1 Like
#7

This is a cool idea!
Here is my 0-Coast patch. Kind of a minimalist noise thing?: Disintegration

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#8

Here’s my Response to Disintegration.

It went in sorta theme and variations direction, which is odd for me. Which is good, since that’s the point! Fun patch!

1 Like
#9

A rare late night session. My Burnt Fife

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#10

Here is my response to Disintegration; a jittery take on the original.

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#11

Not sure what week we are on per se, or what the current prompt is (if that’s a thing), but here’s a response to Damon’s week 03 prompt. I took the liberty of a little spring reverb to keep in the spirit of the left coast, hope that’s ok. I’ve been itching to get my 0-coast more on my radar (esp now with 0-ctrl coming). Lots of fun, and I definitely would not have come up with this patch on my own, so good learning too. Thanks!

And… a response to John’s week 04 prompt. Loved the micro interactions in the wavefolding circuits on this patch.

2 Likes
#12

Here’s my response to @TelevisionName’s Disintegration prompt. With some Valhalla room reverb. Love the sounds of disintegration possible on this patch, nice one.

1 Like
#13

Just a comment here that I love the title of this thread. Very clever.

From Corpse to Coast!

3 Likes
#14

Don’t worry, there’s not a “current” Prompt. The reference to weeks in those tracks was to the back and forth over the past seven weeks between John and I. Publicly, it’s a free for all.

Reverb is officially sanctioned in the rules, as are other other “mastering” type effects. Interpret that as you will. But bonus points for using spring reverb!

Love the Responses, thanks for sharing!

2 Likes
#15

Glad I am “in bounds” and that you are enjoying the repsonses. Here’s my last one, guess I will have to patch up some prompts now :slight_smile: this is a response to My Burnt Fife

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#16

Here is a new prompt called Study in Harmonics, Then Subharmonics (aka my burnt bagpipes). Enjoy

1 Like